The most fabulous read about unrequited love and lost souls!
Based locally in Frome and further away in Vienna and Nepal, the destinations taking you on a wonderful journey described so vividly with such clarity and knowledge you feel as if you are almost there too!
Nat, married with a young daughter Mabel has been on a wonderful family holiday and during a stop over in Vienna, Mabel loses her much loved soft toy cow Moolah! What ensues is every parents nightmare, but also the most wonderful enchanting coincidental love story as Moolahs disappearance goes viral and with the help of celebrities, strangers and the internet, Moolah is located many miles away from home with a charismatic lost soul who takes Moolah on the trip of a lifetime!
Serendipity, love, luck, loss and fate all play their part in this heartwarming yet heartbreaking at times read that has the most glorious ending, would do love to read a sequel!
Thank you netgalley for this early read!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

Coming back from a holiday that for Natasha and Rob was a make or break for their marriage, and things are going well.

That is, their daughter who is 4 loses her favourite toy. After Natasha has tried every option to try and find it, she turns to social media, hoping that will help her find it.

She contacts Duffy who found the toy, they become friends and over time the relationship means more to both of them.

I recommend this book.

I love Karen Swan books. She can make even the most mundane subject interesting. Her characters are believable and relatable and you become invested in their storyline.
There's humour, romance and the requisite happy ending with heartache and a few twists and turns along the way . There's always a secret to uncover in her storylines. Things are never quite what they seem .
I know nothing about mountaineers,trekking or the indigenous people of Nepal so it was an interesting read too.
I was enthralled with the storyline from the first pages, it's cleverly plotted with information given in threads that are woven more tightly together as the book goes on and by the end of the book they've been tied up neatly.
I especially like that Karen Swan keeps it real, you can relate to children not sleeping because they've lost their favourite toy , the bond that builds up between Natasha and Duffy and her daughter through the communications with the stuffed animal is really sweet to read . This seems like such an unlikely scenario but it works and I couldn't wait to find out what adventures he'd come up with next to entertain them.
I read this in two sittings , I literally didn't want to put the book down, unfortunately I had work and had to. I picked it straight back up when I got home!
Thoroughly recommend. You'll need tissues for the emotional rollercoaster ride.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an early review of this book in return for an honest review.

This is a really enjoyable book, based around Christmas, focusing on the period leading up to Christmas. I found the story telling from two different periods easy to follow and definitely left me guessing what was going to happen. I'll absolutely be recommending this book to others.

What a brilliant read this was. I couldn't put it down it was so good and when I did have to put it down, it was playing on my mind. I loved the plot and even though it was easy to guess the outcomes, this didn't detract from my enjoyment of the unfolding dramas and there were a few twists I missed guessing. The storyline is well developed and the narrative superb, I became very engrossed in the lives of the characters and was left holding my breath at times, when the subject focus shifted.

The characters in this story were so good and I became very invested in their lives and dramas. Natasha lives a quiet life with her husband and small daughter, Mabel, but never quite feels settled in that life. I liked her determination and resilience to what life threw at her. I wanted her to find peace too. I adored Duffy, he had such clarity of character and sees things others miss. Of course, there was Moolah too, Mabel's toy cow who also ends up having an adventure of her own, this was such a sweet thread to the story.

Set in Frome, Somerset and the Himalayas this book, as with all Karen Swan's stories takes you around the globe. Her books are always well-researched and detailed so that you feel you are there. I loved the connections that occurred with the characters, the way small things made changes with big consequences,

This is a fantastic story and I highly recommend it. It is the type of story I will reread and still really enjoy every word.

A heart warming story full of depth and great characters. It's an easy read, perfect for the time of year with log fires and hot chocolate and snow twirling outside. The author leaves clues all through the book so that you have guessed what is going to happen before the characters do, so not exactly predictable but definitely no major surprises as you get to work them out first.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the e- advance review copy.

A quick, easy and cosy read with a beautiful premise and perfect execution. The story gripped me right from the start and still hasn't let me go. I loved it.

This beautiful story of hope in the face of adversity has left me smiling and glad to have read and shared in this story. Following Nat's past and present and then travelling with Duffy after he finds the errant Moolah leads us on a heart warming tale.
There are a lot of obvious hints as to where this story is leading but it's written in such a way that it's enjoyable seeing the characters find out what I already suspected. The characters themselves are well written and easy to care about and hope that they get the best possible outcome from all the smaller stories alongside the holidaying Moolah. I found all the mountaineering information fascinating and including it added an interesting level of peril to Duffy's storyline especially once we learned his truths.
I really enjoyed this read, I guess this is another author I'm going to have to look out for in future!

I found Karen Swan's last two stand-alone novels, The Secret Path and Midnight in the Snow, somewhat disappointing, but she's back on form with The Christmas Postcards. This sweet if unlikely read follows two characters whose lives are linked together by a series of coincidences. Natasha is distraught when her small daughter's favourite soft toy cow goes missing. It turns out they left it in a holiday apartment in Vienna - but by the time they discover this, the toy has been picked up by mountain climber Duffy, who's on his way to the Himalayas to trek to Annapurna. Through the power of social media, Duffy finds out that Natasha is searching for the toy, and sends a series of photos - 'the Christmas postcards' to her daughter so she can see that the cow is having fun on her travels. But are there further connections between Natasha and Duffy that will draw them even closer together?

There's minimal luxurious travel in this one - although I was chuffed to see it's set in Frome, a town I visited often when growing up in Wiltshire and which I've never seen feature in a novel before. Sadly, the descriptions of Frome are not particularly evocative, and this could be set in any Cotswolds village or town. However, I enjoyed the sequences set in the Himalayas, which brought the snowy peril that I thought was missing from Midnight in the Snow. Thinking of Swan's back catalogue, this reminded me particularly of Together By Christmas and The Christmas Lights, so I'd especially recommend it to readers who enjoyed those two. A cozy holiday read.

Tom and Natasha meet and connect but their lives take very different turns. Can they find love together when they both want different things. This book pulls at the heartstrings. Full of emotion and sweet moments about the importance of family. I enjoyed the climbing in Nepal and the descriptions. This book had everything. Another great book by Karen Swan. Would highly recommend. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book.

What a beautiful story! Karen Swan never, ever disappoints and this is her best book yet, I simply couldn’t put it down. Full of “what ifs” and “will they?”, twists and turns, a bit of a shock reveal and hopes for a happy ending…a cliff hanger in so, so many ways. I really can’t recommend this book enough.

Thank you to Netgalley the author and publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

I do love Karen Swan’s books and this was a wonderful winter tale with a difference - a simple case of a missing but much loved toy which connects Natasha (and her daughter Mabel) with adventurer Duffy. I loved the simplicity of this lovely character read and both Natasha and Duffy had good backstories as well as a lot going on in their lives right now. There’s some good twists in this however in honesty I did work them out well in advance but still very much enjoyed the story which was fantastically written, 9/10

This was such a beautiful and thought provoking read of serendipity and fate and love and loss and life decisions. This was so much more than a festive read and a book that will stay with me for a long time.

This was a heartwarming and at times heartbreaking read but also uplifting at the same time. Every page I turned had me more drawn into the lives of Natasha and Duffy and theirs friends and events which joined them all together.

This book is for anyone who is looking for hope for the future and who believes everything happens for a reason.

I always look forward to reading a new Karen Swan book and thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this one. This book was quite different to previous ones and was a fantastic read. The story itself was absolutely gripping, with intertwined tales, past and present describing the main characters with their separate adventures and their interactions. This is definitely my favourite Karen Swan book so far.